Barony

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER pairing in Barony produces a performance profile that is almost entirely dictated by the GPU, with the 2018-era CPU providing enough throughput to avoid becoming a serious bottleneck at most settings. The measured frame rates are exceptionally high across all resolutions, making this a combination that favors high-refresh-rate displays, particularly at 1440p and 1080p. The data shows a clear hierarchy: lower settings yield massive frame rate gains, while Ultra settings still deliver playable results at 4K. This analysis breaks down the measured results, the role of each component, and how this specific combo ranks among other tested configurations.

FAQ

Q: What is the best resolution to use with this combo for a 60 Hz display?

A: At 3840x2160 with Ultra settings, the average frame rate is 90 FPS, which exceeds a 60 Hz refresh rate. For a 60 Hz display, even the most demanding 4K Ultra preset provides a comfortable margin above the refresh ceiling, so users can prioritize visual quality without concern for frame pacing issues.

Q: How does the RTX 4080 SUPER perform at 1440p High settings?

A: The measured average frame rate at 2560x1440 with High settings is 240 FPS. This is a high enough number to fully saturate a 240 Hz monitor, making this preset the likely target for competitive or fast-paced play on such displays.

Q: Is there a large performance gap between Low and Medium settings at 1080p?

A: Yes, the difference is modest but noticeable. At 1920x1080, Low settings produce an average of 417 FPS, while Medium settings produce an average of 374 FPS. The gap between Medium and High is smaller (374 FPS to 354 FPS), suggesting diminishing returns as settings increase.

Q: What is the minimum frame rate recorded in the measured data?

A: The lowest minimum frame rate recorded is 124 FPS, which occurs at 3840x2160 with Medium settings. The other Medium presets show minimums of 238 FPS at 1440p and 318 FPS at 1080p, indicating that even the most demanding preset tested maintains frame times well above typical 60 Hz thresholds.

*Q: How does this combo rank compared to all other tested combinations in Barony?*

A: The combo ranks 602nd out of 3717 total tested combinations. This places it in the top 16.2% of all configurations tested for this game, which is a strong result given the age of the CPU.

Q: Does the Ryzen 5 2600 hold back the RTX 4080 SUPER at 1080p?

A: The data does not directly measure CPU utilization, but the frame rates at 1080p are extremely high (354-417 FPS depending on settings). These numbers are likely near the practical limit for the game engine, suggesting the CPU is sufficient to feed the GPU enough work to maintain such high output.

Settings Recommendations

The measured data provides clear guidance on which preset to use depending on your display's refresh rate and resolution. At 3840x2160, the High preset delivers an average of 126 FPS, while Medium offers 146 FPS with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS. The Ultra preset drops to 90 FPS average. For 4K gaming, the High preset strikes the best balance because it stays well above 120 FPS average while providing better visual fidelity than Medium. If you have a 144 Hz 4K display, High is the recommended starting point, as the average of 126 FPS is close to the refresh ceiling. The Medium preset is also viable, offering a higher average (146 FPS) but with a lower minimum (124 FPS), which could cause occasional dips below a 144 Hz refresh rate.

At 2560x1440, the situation changes. High settings run at 240 FPS average, which is exactly the refresh rate of many high-end gaming monitors. Low settings push this to 357 FPS, but that is above the refresh rate of virtually all consumer displays, making the extra frames imperceptible. Ultra settings still manage 172 FPS average, which is excellent for 1440p. For most users, the High preset is the sweet spot here, as it hits the 240 FPS target on common high-refresh monitors. If you have a 360 Hz display, the Low preset (357 FPS) would be the only one that approaches that refresh rate, but the visual compromise is significant. Medium at 280 FPS is a strong alternative for those who want a bit more visual quality than Low while still staying above 240 Hz.

At 1920x1080, all presets produce extremely high frame rates. Low runs at 417 FPS, Medium at 374 FPS with a minimum of 318 FPS, High at 354 FPS, and Ultra at 273 FPS. For 1080p, the recommendation depends on your monitor. If you have a 240 Hz panel, the High preset (354 FPS) provides a comfortable cushion above the refresh rate. The Ultra preset (273 FPS) also exceeds 240 Hz, so you can use Ultra without sacrificing the full refresh rate. For 360 Hz monitors, the Low preset (417 FPS) is the only one that comes close to saturating the display, but the difference between Low and Medium (417 vs 374 FPS) is small enough that Medium might be worth the visual upgrade. Overall, the best experience across the board is to match the preset to your display's refresh rate: use High for 144-240 Hz displays at any resolution, and only drop to Low or Medium if you have an extremely high refresh rate monitor.

GPU Role

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER is the dominant component in this pairing, and its specifications support the measured performance. The GPU features 16 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 256-bit bus, providing 736.3 GB/s of memory bandwidth. This is more than sufficient for Barony, a roguelike that does not appear to require high memory capacity based on the frame rates achieved. The memory clock runs at 1438 MHz (23 Gbps effective), and the GPU has a base clock of 2295 MHz with a boost clock of 2550 MHz. The GPU is built on a 5 nm process at TSMC with 45,900 million transistors on a 379 mm² die.

The GPU's compute resources are substantial: 10240 shading units, 320 texture mapping units, and 112 raster output units. It also includes 80 RT cores and 320 tensor cores, which are not directly relevant to Barony's rendering but indicate the GPU's overall capability. The pixel rate is 285.6 GPixel/s, and the texture rate is 816.0 GTexel/s. The FP32 performance is 52.22 TFLOPS. These numbers explain why the GPU can push such high frame rates even at 4K: the raw throughput is massive for a game of Barony's visual complexity.

The GPU's role in the measured results is clear. At 4K Ultra, the average frame rate is 90 FPS, which is still high but shows the expected drop as resolution increases. The difference between 4K Low (197 FPS) and 4K Ultra (90 FPS) is a 119% performance spread, indicating that the GPU is the primary scaling factor across settings. At 1440p, the spread between Low (357 FPS) and Ultra (172 FPS) is 108%, and at 1080p it is 53% (417 FPS vs 273 FPS). The narrowing spread at lower resolutions suggests that the CPU begins to play a larger role as the GPU load decreases, but the RTX 4080 SUPER is still the main driver of performance.

The GPU's average benchmark score is 54209, placing it in the 86th percentile of all GPUs. Its nearest rivals include the RTX 4080 (avg score 54247, deltaPct -0.1%), the AMD Radeon Pro W5700X (avg score 54828, deltaPct -1.1%), and the AMD Radeon RX 6750 GRE 12 GB (avg score 55698, deltaPct -2.7%). These deltas are small, meaning the RTX 4080 SUPER performs nearly identically to the RTX 4080 in synthetic benchmarks. In Barony, the 16 GB VRAM is likely never a limiting factor, as the game is not memory-intensive based on the consistent high frame rates.

How This Combo Ranks

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 + RTX 4080 SUPER combination ranks 602nd out of 3717 tested combos in Barony. This is a strong ranking, placing the combo in the top 16.2% of all configurations. The ranking reflects the GPU's high performance, but the CPU's age may be a limiting factor in some scenarios. The Ryzen 5 2600 is from 2018, while the RTX 4080 SUPER is from 2024, creating a significant generational gap. However, the measured frame rates suggest that this gap does not prevent excellent performance in this particular game.

To contextualize the CPU's contribution to the ranking, the Ryzen 5 2600 has an average benchmark score of 21484, placing it in the 75th percentile of all CPUs. Its nearest rivals include the Intel Core Ultra 5 228V (avg score 21440, deltaPct 0.2%), the Intel Core i9-11900H (avg score 21367, deltaPct 0.5%), and the AMD EPYC 9454 (avg score 21223, deltaPct 1.2%). These deltas are all within 1.2% of the Ryzen 5 2600's score, indicating that the CPU is roughly on par with these other processors in synthetic benchmarks. The Intel Xeon D-1746TER has a score of 21635, which is 0.7% higher than the Ryzen 5 2600.

The combo's rank of 602 out of 3717 is likely driven by the GPU's ability to maintain high frame rates even with an older CPU. In games that are heavily single-threaded, the Ryzen 5 2600 might bottleneck the GPU, but Barony appears to be well-optimized enough to avoid this issue at the tested settings. The ranking suggests that this combo is a viable choice for high-refresh-rate gaming, even though the CPU is several generations old. The fact that the combo ranks in the top 16% means that most other tested combinations perform worse, which is a positive signal for users who already own a Ryzen 5 2600 and are considering a GPU upgrade.

CPU Role

The AMD Ryzen 5 2600 is a 6-core, 12-thread processor from the 2000 series, based on the Zen architecture (specifically Zen+ with Pinnacle Ridge). It has a base clock of 3.40 GHz and a boost clock of 3.90 GHz. The CPU is manufactured on a 12 nm process at GlobalFoundries, with 4,800 million transistors on a 213 mm² die. It supports DDR4 memory in a dual-channel configuration with a memory bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s. The L1 cache is 96 KB per core, L2 is 512 KB per core, and L3 is 16 MB shared. The CPU has a TDP of 65 W and uses the AMD Socket AM4. Its launch MSRP was $199.

The CPU's benchmark scores provide context for its role. In Cinebench R15, it scores 1248 in multicore and 157.3 in singlecore. Geekbench scores are 5648 multicore and 1154 singlecore. Passmark results include a multithread score of 13160, a single-thread score of 2239, and a physics score of 673. These numbers indicate a capable mid-range CPU from its era, but they are far below modern flagships. The single-thread score of 2239 is particularly relevant for gaming, as many games rely on single-thread performance.

In Barony, the CPU's role appears to be secondary to the GPU. The measured frame rates at 1080p are extremely high, with Low settings hitting 417 FPS and Ultra at 273 FPS. These numbers suggest that the CPU is not a hard bottleneck at lower resolutions, as the frame rates scale well with GPU load. However, the difference between 1080p and 1440p is notable: at 1440p, the High preset drops from 354 FPS to 240 FPS, a 32% reduction. This drop is larger than the resolution increase would suggest (1080p to 1440p is a 78% increase in pixels), indicating that the GPU is becoming the limiting factor at higher resolutions.

The CPU's 6 cores and 12 threads are sufficient for Barony, which is a roguelike and likely not heavily multi-threaded. The boost clock of 3.90 GHz is modest by modern standards, but the game appears to be well-optimized for the CPU's capabilities. The memory bandwidth of 46.9 GB/s is low compared to modern CPUs, but it does not appear to cause issues in this game based on the frame rates. The CPU's percentile rank of 75% among all CPUs shows that it is still above average in overall performance, even though it is several years old.

Measured FPS Breakdown

The measured FPS data covers three resolutions (3840x2160, 2560x1440, and 1920x1080) and four settings (Low, Medium, High, and Ultra). The data is consistent and shows expected scaling patterns.

At 3840x2160, the Low setting produces an average of 197 FPS. The Medium setting yields 146 FPS average, with a minimum of 124 FPS and a maximum of 168 FPS. The High setting gives 126 FPS average. The Ultra setting drops to 90 FPS average. This represents a 119% increase from Ultra to Low (90 to 197 FPS). The Medium setting's minimum of 124 FPS is worth noting, as it means the frame rate never drops below 124 FPS even at 4K, which is well above the 60 Hz threshold. The spread between Medium and High is 20 FPS (146 vs 126), while the spread between High and Ultra is 36 FPS (126 vs 90). This suggests that the Ultra preset imposes a significant performance penalty beyond High.

At 2560x1440, the Low setting achieves 357 FPS average. Medium produces 280 FPS average, with a minimum of 238 FPS and a maximum of 322 FPS. High gives 240 FPS average. Ultra yields 172 FPS average. The jump from Low to Medium is 77 FPS (357 to 280), while Medium to High is 40 FPS (280 to 240), and High to Ultra is 68 FPS (240 to 172). The Medium setting's minimum of 238 FPS is close to the High average of 240 FPS, meaning that Medium provides a consistent experience with only slightly lower peak performance. The Ultra preset at 172 FPS is still high enough for 144 Hz displays, but the drop from High is substantial.

At 1920x1080, the Low setting hits 417 FPS average. Medium produces 374 FPS average, with a minimum of 318 FPS and a maximum of 430 FPS. High gives 354 FPS average. Ultra yields 273 FPS average. The differences between settings are smaller than at higher resolutions: Low to Medium is 43 FPS (417 to 374), Medium to High is 20 FPS (374 to 354), and High to Ultra is 81 FPS (354 to 273). The Ultra preset's 273 FPS is still very high, but the drop from High is notable. The Medium setting's minimum of 318 FPS is above the High average of 354 FPS, which is interesting because it shows that Medium provides more consistent frame times than High.

Across all resolutions, the Low preset consistently delivers the highest frame rates, followed by Medium, then High, then Ultra. The scaling from Low to Ultra becomes more pronounced at higher resolutions: at 1080p, the spread is 144 FPS (417 to 273), at 1440p it is 185 FPS (357 to 172), and at 4K it is 107 FPS (197 to 90). This indicates that the GPU is the primary scaling factor, with the CPU playing a larger role at lower resolutions where frame rates are higher. The data shows that this combo is capable of running Barony at high refresh rates even at 4K, with the only caveat being that Ultra settings at 4K drop below 100 FPS. For players who prioritize frame rate over visual fidelity, the Low preset at 1440p (357 FPS) or 1080p (417 FPS) provides the highest possible performance.